This morning our speaker, Mark Vittori, many of you have heard of him already during our Sunday school ABF hour. And Mark's going to be coming to preach for us here. And as we said already, in case you came in late, Mark is the director of Gospel Fellowship Association down in Greenville, South Carolina. He and his wife Paula have been on the mission field as missionaries in Mexico. And also, he has been to various other places Capacity as the director of GFA, encouraging missionaries throughout the world. Mark is one of our own. Paula and him grew up here at the church. They gave their lives to missions. And the Lord has greatly blessed their ministry over the years. And I'm going to ask Mark to come at this time and preach God's word to us. Mark. I ask you this morning to look with me in the book of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. This morning I want to bring a message that for years I've been going and speaking in churches and conferences such as this for a couple of decades. And there was always one topic that I would avoid. I just did not like to speak on this topic. Pastor, you'll understand this. You know, there are certain topics you bring up, and the moment you announce it, there's something happens. You feel it up there. There's a wall that just goes... Honestly, I mean, speakers, you get to the point, you feel, you sense the response of the people. And quite frankly, I want people to like me. I want them to invite me back, you know? And if I preach something that the wall goes up, it's, you know, that Brother Vittori, you know, his wife sings nice, but I don't know. Really, I... But I have to admit something that about three years ago, I began preaching on a topic that I just avoided before. And it's because I gained a fresh excitement, a personal experiential excitement for this topic. And it has to do with... Alright, I'll tell you. Alright? Don't do it. Don't do it to me. I want to talk on giving. I did. I avoided it. Because in the moment you do that, then the congregation goes, oh, there goes another one of these. And quite frankly, I'm not one of those another one of these that is always wanting to preach on finances and the giving to the Lord's work. This came about because of about three years ago, As all of us were, we're looking down the road, a very dark tunnel. What's coming in the tunnel? The economic state of our own country is uncertain. All of us have made adjustments, all of us have thought through, all of us have tried to, and some of us have had difficulty, more difficulty than others. I mean, I understand. And I'm coming back to Motor City. And I understand the strain that's on this part of the country. You're perfect. OK? I head up a multinational organization. We have missionaries in 34 countries, dependent on the support of God's people back in the States. I begin asking the question, all right, I'm responsible. I need to give counsel, encouragement, direction for some 300 missionaries around the world. What do we do? How do I best help them? How do I best prepare that organization, our GFA? How do I best prepare it for the potential downturn of our economy? How do I best prepare our people, the missionaries? What's going to happen? How do I best prepare the churches, God's people, back in the States? How do we look at this? How do we approach this? What do we do? And I begin asking people, what happened during the Great Depression? Does anybody know? What did the churches do? How did they survive? What was the event that took place? What transpired during that time? And I was not finding a lot of information. I've asked people who went through the Great Depression as young people, and they said, well, it seemed like things just kept going like normal, but I really don't understand. I really don't know what happened. I said, that's not good enough. What happened? What do we do? How do we respond to this? I went on the Internet. typed in something like, very simple, Fundamental Missions and the Great Depression. It's almost just exact wording. And all of us who have spent any time at all trying to search something know you can waste a lot of time. Because it will take you to 14 million sites, you know. No, I don't have that kind of time. I need the information. How do we do this? What do I need to do personally in my life, personally with this organization the Lord has given me charge? How do I encourage our people and the churches? Lord, what is the answer? Lord, I'm going to be speaking. I'll still be traveling and visiting churches during this time that potentially the crash will be hard and severe. And I'll still be in churches. What do I do? What do I tell them? Is there any hope that I can give them for the health of Your work? I came upon a site that popped up It was the first site I clicked on. It was maybe five down in the list, and I looked, okay, this is the one, click. And I started reading, and it's one of these sites that, you know, they'll let you read the first page, and then they say now to unlock the full document, it'll be five dollars. So I thought, but I did learn something from that. You know, the way to get through hard economic times is get you one of those sites. I thought, ah, but the first page really sounded like what I was looking for. Okay. Okay. It was great. It was precisely what I needed. I'd ask the Lord, help me understand. Lord, give us something. I don't know. And it was a chapter of a book of church history written by a liberal professor at Cambridge University who was no friend of fundamentalists and fundamentalism. In fact, you read the whole article, he makes several very pointed jabs at us. But he wrote about this, and it was gold. It was exactly what I needed to see. He gave me the answers. How do we respond to this? What do we do? What do I respond personally? As an organization, as assemblies of God's people, what do we do? You want to know what I read? You're going to have to wait. And if you wait until the end of the sermon, the almighty will charge you five bucks. Okay, how's that? What do we do? How do we respond? Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. In fact, let's look a little bit in the background. This is Paul's second letter to the church of Corinth. The first letter he wrote. And he wrote with great severity. Because there were problems in the church. Disunity. For those who are saying, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of this guy. I mean, the disunity that was in the church. He dealt with that. He dealt with their unsettled grievances. I mean, there was brother taking brother to court. Immorality in the church. Incredible. Abuse of worship. Abuse of the spiritual gifts. abuse of the Lord's table. And the list would go on. There were questions over the food offered to idols and marriage to unbelievers. You read 1 Corinthians and Paul is just boom, boom, boom. Now, we call the Church of Corinth a carnal church. I think we need to change that impression, however, because now 2 Corinthians, when he writes to them in that second letter, It's a totally different tone. Because he writes back, in fact we back up in chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. If you have that there. Look what he says in verse 4. Great is my, bold is my speech towards you. He can speak with great authority to these people. Verse 5 says, when his first letter went, he says, When we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fighting, within were fears." See, he was fearful that his first letter was going to turn them against him. Because he spoke with authority and severity. You must change these things in the church. But then, verse 7 says, when Titus came, He says, He told us of your earnest desire and your mourning and your fervent mind towards Me. See, after they received the letter from Paul, that first letter of Corinthians, Titus brought back word to Paul. He said, Paul, they received it with great humility. And they mourned over their sin. Verse 9 says, Now I rejoice, not that you are made sorrowed, but that you sorrow to repentance. Verse 11 says, you soured after a godly sort. And the verse 11 says, in all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. So Paul is saying, wow, even though I spoke with great harshness, my current manner of writing, you responded to everything. For this I give you thanks. Verse 13 says, we were comforted by this. Verse 16 says, I rejoiced over that I have confidence in you and now in all things. I say the Church of Corinth was not a carnal church. But it was. What is a spiritually minded church going to do? Is it a perfect church? Is it a church without problems, without sin? No. It's a church that when the word of God is presented to them, they respond correctly. I believe the church of Paul is saying, great, you heard my words, you received them properly, and you repented of your sin, of all those things. He said, now I greatly rejoice. Brother Ward, wouldn't you appreciate to have a church that every time you preached, that everything you preached, that God's people responded to? You would rejoice. That's what Paul said, I'm rejoicing. They were a spiritual church in effect. They weren't a perfect church, because now he goes on in 2 Corinthians with more things to deal with. But all he's saying is, you responded correctly. Thank you. Now we get into our text this morning. He says, I've preached to you, I've written to you, and told you of your faults, and you've responded, you've repented, and you sorrow unto repentance. Now in chapter 8 he goes, okay, you've done great. Now let's try one more step, one more rung of the ladder in your spiritual maturity. You've done great! You're coming along, you've responded well. Now let's try something else to add to your spiritual maturity. He goes on and says, verse 1, it says, Moreover, that word moreover means now in addition to all these other things, I want to add something to this. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the church of Macedonia. We do you to wit. You say, there goes that King James. Wait a minute, that's a great phrase. We do you to wit? Do you know what that means? Come on, yes you do. I guarantee you know that word, wit, to wit. How many of you have used the word this week? You've used this word this week, probably all of you, or most of you. You think so? How many of you have used the word witnessing? I witnessed to this person. We went witnessing. You understand? I do you to wit. The word there means, very simply, to make known. I want you to understand, to be a witness. It's almost like in a courtroom. You are a witness. You understand, you know, you were there, you saw this. It's verifiable. All Paul is saying is, alright, now you've grown in all these things in your spiritual walk. Now, there's one more thing I want you to grow in. But I want you to take note, I want you to be a witness of this very thing that happened to help you understand what went on. And what is the issue? The Church of Macedonia, verse 2. He says, you know this, how then great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy. By the way, affliction and joy, those look like contradictory terms. How can you have affliction and joy? Look at this. But yet in God's way, the affliction becomes the trial of our faith is more precious than the gold. But the trial of your great affliction, the abundance of joy and their deep poverty. OK, there we are. They're in a state. Of an economic, total economic disintegration. Their deep poverty. In fact, I've tried to study to find out what was going on in Macedonia. Is there anything written? Apart from this that we know that the church there in Macedonia were having a difficult time economically. All this is their deep poverty. That they abounded unto the riches of their liberality. Again, contradictory phrases. I'm going to have deep poverty, but yet abound in their giving. It doesn't seem to fit. What's going on here? I want you to wit. I want you to witness this. I want you to be personal witnesses of what I'm talking about here. I want you to understand. I do you to wit of these churches in Macedonia that had great affliction, deep poverty, But they gave in a way that was just miraculous. Verse 3 says, for of their power, the term their power makes reference to a miraculous action. He said, this is miraculous. He said, I bear you record. Yay! Beyond their power, they were willing unto themselves. The word bear record, again, is a legal term, which means here's a verifiable truth. I want you to witness. This verifiable truth, what went on? that they gave willingly of themselves. This is a voluntary action of these people. It wasn't forced upon them. There wasn't any kind of pressure or guilt trip. They just did. In fact, Paul was trying to talk them out of it. Look at the pressure Paul pulled off of those people massacred. No, no, no, no, no. Don't don't do this. Don't give. Can you imagine a Baptist preacher saying that? Don't give. But what happened? They voluntarily gave of themselves. Verse 4 says, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift. In other words, praying means begging. They were begging us. Paul said, no, no, I can't take that. You have a great need to take it. No, Paul said, no, please, you folks, I appreciate the idea of this, the heart behind it, but please, Paul, take the money and give it to the believers in Jerusalem. Paul took the money and gave it. as it was intended. Verse 5 says, And this they did, not as we had hoped, but first they gave themselves to the Lord, and then unto us by the will of God. Verse 7 says, Now to the church in Corinth. I do you two wit. I want you to understand what happened in Macedonia. This is verifiable. This is not made up. I do you to wit what they did." Now he says, he turns his words now to the believers in Corinth. He says, therefore, as you abound in everything, Paul says, as you have done everything else, I've written you and you've responded. You've gotten rid of the sin in the church. You've straightened out your worship practices. You've done all of these things. Now he says, verse 7, at the end, to see that ye abound in this grace also. What is the grace? It's the gift of learning how God wants you to be givers. You see, previously to this, I've always thought, and I would do the same thing. Someone preaches on giving, the wall goes up. Paul is saying, wait a minute, no, no, you understand. No, no, no. This is not about me. And it's really not about the believers in Jerusalem who have great need. The issue is about you. Learning to honestly get your heart on the stage. That you're able to do something. Deny yourself. He says, this is another step of spiritual maturity. He says, it's great. It's marvelous. Be able to get to the point in your life that you're able to become that joyful giver. As he says in chapter 9, actually, he says, the Lord loves the cheerful giver. So he's dealing with this. He says, I don't want to hold you back from this. I don't want to hide this from you. But I want those who would desire to enter into yet another phase of spiritual growth, try it. Find out that you cannot out give God. Look at verse 8. And look how he again pulls back off the people. He says, but I understand I'm not speaking this by commandment. He says, I'm not trying to put pressure on anyone. But I just want to give you a chance to prove your love. Typically, when I've heard people speak on giving, it's this guilt trip. Pressure. Trying to really squeeze. You know what? When I started preaching this, I thought, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. The attitude here is one of stepping back. Pulling the pressure off. And folks, if you go out of here this morning, going, there goes another one of these, begging for money. I have failed. I have failed. If anything, I want to pull back, pull the pressure off of you so that your giving is not because of pressure giving, it's pleasure giving. It's not guilt giving, it's joyful giving. That is the point. That is the whole context here. If anything, I want to pull it off of you. Because the Lord is not pleased in guilt giving. Well, he wants the person who gives, because there's a level of spiritual growth and maturity in their life and understanding, that they go, wow, what an opportunity. I do you two wit, my friends. I do you two wit of what went on in the Church of Macedonia. I'm telling you. This happened, and they gave, and Paul says, they abounded in their giving, and God abounded in the blessing of hearts that were maturely driven towards Him in obedience. Paul's aim was to pull back, pull pressure off of them, so that indeed they could be happy givers. Learn how to give out of pleasure. What am I going to do with the rest of the message? I want us to see some examples of this, biblical examples of those who were in deep poverty of one way or the other and how they responded to it. So that you can, I want you to wit these examples. I want you to witness these examples. And then see how God indeed would be bringing that into our lives that we also would be numbered among those who would learn to give joyfully to God. Let's go first of all to 1 Samuel. And I know familiar passages here, but the example is so clear. Here in 1 Samuel, we have the example of Hannah. Here's a story of a godly woman. in a very unfortunate, ungodly situation. She had to be married to a husband who took another wife. It was a polygamous situation. Hannah was a godly, God-fearing woman, a God-loving woman. But now she's in a situation that is very unfortunate. Often when we visit mission fields, we find that women who come to the services, they have nothing to give. The husband gives them absolutely nothing in life. I mean, he handles all the finances, he handles everything. The wife has no pocket change, doesn't have anything. And it's very difficult. They want to give something. They'll bring an egg or some oranges. Something they can give. I picture Hannah kind of being this way. Here she is now in this very awkward situation with nothing apart from a heart for her God. We see here that she goes to the... well, the problem here is that she didn't even have a child. And back then, if you were a wife, and this could be why, Her husband married another woman for children. To give him children. She was not giving any children. She was barren. So think of this woman, this poor godly, God-fearing woman, who was in a strapped situation that she could not even bear children. And that society, you would be worthless. Totally worthless. But where did that come from? Verse 5 says, But the Lord shut up her womb. Verse 6 says, The Lord had shut up her womb. Who did this? Who brought this barrenness upon this godly woman? The Lord Himself. Why? We see her then going before God and saying, Lord, if you will give me a son, I will give him back to you for your service. I will give him to the priest, and he will have him, and he will serve you. Give me a son." It says here that she was in bitterness of soul. That doesn't mean she was bitter against God, which means that she was just at the very end of her rope. She was at the bottom of the totem pole. She was totally destitute and desolate. Have any of you been to that point in your life yet? But yet she vowed, vowed, verse 10, I'll give you a son. Give me a son, I'll give him back to you. Well, what happened? The Lord answered, gave her a son. We get to verse 21, and said, For this child I pray, the Lord hath given me my petition, which I've asked him. Therefore also have I lent him, or in other words, I've returned him to the Lord. As long as the Lord liveth, he shall be returned or given to the Lord. Well, she kept her promise. And in chapter two, we find the rejoicing that she went through. She became a joyful, hilarious giver. For she said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord because I rejoice and I salvage. She was a joyful giver. And then we find, we go over and later in that same chapter, verse 21, then the Lord did visit her and she bare, what does it say here, three sons and two daughters, five other children. Wow. What do we find here? Just briefly looking at this story without a lot of details, but just a basic skeleton of the outline, what do we find? We find a woman with deep poverty, with great need. A difficult situation. She was barren and had nothing to give. How many of us have felt that we have been at that point in our lives sometime? Totally, totally toast. I don't know why that came to my mind. Total toast. I mean, our lives have been nothing. Amazing. The second thing we can find in this example of her, that even in her barrenness, She maintained a right heart towards God. She didn't turn against God. Maintain simple faith and trust in Him. Number three we can learn. That even in her barrenness, she maintained a giving heart. You know, most people when they're in the point of life that they have great need, they just want to be on the receiving end. Isn't that so? Hey, I have needs, so hey, you've got more than I've got, so you owe it to me. She didn't. She wasn't that way when she was destitute is when she still maintained a heart of giving. Now, the real miracle here in this passage is not. That a barren woman gave children, gave birth to children. That's miraculous enough, but the greatest miracle here is that someone in a state of complete destitution was willing to give. There's the miracle. You see, that's what God is working. God is working in our hearts. He wants that kind of a person. And sometimes He will put us in a destitute state to see if indeed we will maintain the right heart towards Him. She gave, she experienced the joy of giving, and God blessed her. Another example, let's go on over to 1 Kings. First Kings chapter 17. Here is the example of the woman of Zarephath, First Kings chapter 17. Here's a story of a faithful prophet and a woman full of faith. It's a beautiful picture here of how God desires to supply the needs of his work. The story goes on here, we know that Elijah was being pursued by Ahab. And so God told Elijah, let me get my name straight here, God told Elijah to go down by the brook Cherith. And there by that brook, he could hide from Ahab. He had told Ahab the prophecy of God that it would not rain, that there would be a drought. And so he went down there, Ahab was pursuing the life of Elijah, go hide there. Elijah went there. It must have been wonderful. Can you imagine? God's provision. He's sitting there by the brook with his arms folded, his feet propped up on a rock there, nestled in some bushes, I don't know, and the brook going by and the sweet water that he was drinking. And talk about the ravens would bring food to him every day. Wow. I mean, talk about service. That was great. Until... The brook dried up. Verse 7 of chapter 17. After a while, the brook dried up. Because it hadn't rained. Now who dried up the brook? Was God taken by surprise? God was in that. There was a drought. God held back the rain. Has your brook ever dried up? Boy, it looked like a great provision by God, but then all of a sudden it dries up. But God had a better plan. He said, I want you to go to this little city and find there a widow lady. And I want you to go to her and she will supply your needs. So now we find here's a widow. woman with at least one child. And it says here in verse 12 that Elijah found her. All she had in her hand was a handful of meal in a barrel, a little oil and a cruise. She was gathering two sticks, that I might go and dress it for my son, that we might eat it and die. Talk about destitution. Talk about economic depression. I mean, all she had, here's this widow lady, a little, small, bony hand. Could be half the size of my hand. And in the palm of that little hand was just a little bit of meal. As you can see, just a little bit of oil, a few little drops of oil to make it into a paste. It only had two sticks. All you needed was two sticks to heat up that much. It just emphasized how small. How little she had. And we're going to eat this, and then just die. It's our last meal. Well, God told Elijah to tell the woman to give to Him first. And I think, can you imagine Elijah saying, I've got to be obedient, but I've got to tell this woman to feed me first. Give it to me first. And again, the miracle was not so much that then after she did this that God filled the barrel with more meal, with more flour to make bread and more oil. That was not the main miracle. We always focus on that, how God filled up her pots again. No, the real miracle, my friends, was in the heart of this woman. To think that she was actually willing to be obedient and do it. That was the great miracle. And she did it. She was faithful and God blessed her because of it. What do we read? What do we learn from this situation? She too was a woman in a difficult situation. She had nothing to give. She was destitute. She was ready to die. But God wanted to use her to care for the needs of her servants. Isn't it interesting that God does not preserve the joy of giving for just the wealthy. If we can get a hold of that, the joy that comes from giving is not preserved just to those who have great resources. He's preserved that joy also for the rest of us, that we can give. I do you to wit, my friends, that this really happened. Other examples we won't touch on this morning, we'll move along. the offerings received for the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, how they gave willingly. If you were to look, if you write this down, 1 Chronicles 29, verses 6, 9, and 14. Again, the miracle was not what they came up with. The miracle talks about is that they were willing of heart to do it. Again, getting back to our hearts. The greatest miracle is not what goes from the wallet to the plate. It's what really is in the heart, what God does to our heart. through this area of giving. The teaching of Proverbs, teaching of Haggai, other examples I could give, the teaching of the Gospels, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. The feeding of the 5,000. Can you imagine? Here's this little boy. Was he the only one that thought enough to take a lunch? Do I think too much when I read something? All these people, 5,000 men, and there's one little boy with his Captain America lunchbox. Where was everybody else? What was the miracle? Five loaves, two fish, and he fed all these thousands of people? No. The miracle was the heart of a little boy. He said, OK, I'll give it. See? We always put so much emphasis on how much we give. Really, the work done is in our heart, not in the wallet. Example is the book of Acts, the teaching of the epistles. I mean, all through Scripture we find people in destitute situations. And God puts them there to test their heart, to see what they'll do. I've taken enough time. I think you've got the picture, you've got the idea. You want me to read a little bit about what I found on the internet? Do you want to hear that now? Is there enough time? I can just finish right now. Real quick. I do you to wit. You know, so many people would say, yeah, but that's Bible history. Those are Bible stories. We expect that from the Bible. You know, these miraculous things. That's what happens in the Bible. I live in real life. This is real life, real time. I mean, we have the tendency, there's a temptation to think that way. Listen, go back to that woman in Zarephath and say, listen, that's not real life. She'd look at our situation and say, huh? You rich Americans? You have so much, I mean, it would be a far-reaching dream to have what we have. Real life. Okay, something a little closer to our time, the Great Depression, 1929. What happened? Now that's not Bible history. What happened? I do you to wit, my friends, that there was something miraculous that went on back in 1929, between 1929 and 1936, that there's no explanation apart from what God did in the hearts of His people. And their hearts responded to Him. It's miraculous! That's what Paul is saying about the Church of Macedonia. I just can't explain this, but here's what happened. Here is a liberal professor, Cambridge University, poking every jab at biblical Christianity that he can. That is a historian, he had a right. He just wrote what was there. So I mean, there's no There's no stretching of the truth. This is what he wrote. OK. The guy's name is Joel Carpenter, the source of Church History, March 1980, published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History. All right. He says the older denominations experienced a religious depression, talking about between 1929 and 1936. These major denominations Liberal denominations went through what he called a religious depression, in quotes. He said their memberships declined and their foreign missionary enterprises lost momentum as budgets tightened. And many missionaries returned home at mid-career for lack of funds as the churches cut off the lower end of their priority list. In other words, they were suffering. They lost memberships, they lost the income, the offerings. And they looked at Missions. First thing they go, it's at the bottom of their priority list. They cut Missions. And the missionaries had to come home mid-career. Missions was in a nosedive. Their churches were suffering. A few paragraphs down, he says this, and it sticks out like a flashing light. He says, but in similar contrast to the plight of the major denominations, fundamentalists prospered. Listen. He just used the word. Fundamentalists prospered. He goes on to talk about all these wild people who lost the debate on creationism and Darwinism. He goes on to talk about how silly they were and how silly they were in society's eyes. But wait a minute, what is he saying? The major denominations, because the stock market crashed, they lost it. But the fundamentals, they prospered. He said, I do you to wit. I can't explain it, but here's what happened. I'll just jump down through here. It says, their foreign missionary work portrayed most starkly their contrasting fortunes. The contrasting fortunes, like the Church of Macedonia, how the contrast of terms, great poverty, the liberality. I mean, he's almost paraphrasing Paul's words here. The great missionary enterprise of the fundamental churches entered the era with unbounded hope and zeal. But liberal churches, disillusioned with evangelism, saw a depletion of their mission budgets and enthusiastic young volunteers. They lost missionaries. Who's going to go into missions? There's no funding for it. There's no money. They just almost completely dissipated. It talks about, for instance, the Northern Baptist Convention experienced an extremely heavy decline in its missions program, its staff dwindled. 1936 was particularly disastrous as the contribution dropped 45% in one year. Wow. Then it goes, but fundamentalist interest in missions did not flag. I like that word, flag. It didn't droop. It didn't lose its identification. They wanted missionaries who preached the old gospel of individual repentance and redemption and supported independent faith missions, which were not denomination-connected or ruled. They also founded new mission agencies. While liberal mainland denominations reported in 1932 that evangelism and missions was passé, by 1936 these major religious denominations said, well, missions is no longer relevant. We'll just be done with it. But fundamental back missions grew stronger, better financed, more evangelistically aggressive, and more successful in recruiting volunteers than ever before. Talks about China Inland Missions back then was a fundamental board. Sent out 629 new missionaries. I'll stop there. All I'm saying is, my friends, I do you to wit. That God of the Bible is the same God today. And what he did back then, he used as examples for us today to be encouraged and follow that example today. There in 1929 to 36. Up to date, the most devastating economic time in the history of our country. The fundamental churches flourished. How can that be? Wait a minute, it doesn't fit. Difficulty, struggle, poverty, loss of jobs, income, our homes. And giving? They did it. I explained to you how? I don't know, apart from the one fact that God must have done a work in the hearts of those people. and said, you know, God can do this. And God did it through them. The ball was pitched to them and they hit it out of the park. You know what? I became very excited because I realized that potentially God was going to put our generation, give our generation a chance to step up to that batter's box. And I asked, what am I going to do? Am I going to follow those who went through a religious depression? Am I going to follow those who allowed their faith to follow the stock market? Boy, that would be a wild ride, wouldn't it? Their faith was anchored in God to do something miraculous. And He did it. And you know, if God wills to bring our generation to that, folks, let's step up to the plate. And I don't know how, but let's hit the ball out of the ballpark. Let's be the example, if God doesn't return for another 50 years, they can look back to us and say, they did it! I do you to wit that they're back in 2010, 2011, It's miraculous. Only explanation is God, and what God did to those people because they had willing hearts to do this. All I'm asking this morning, I'm not saying put pressure, I hate this, give more. All I'm saying is, let's put our heart in a state that has no will of its own. Let's let God move us, if He desires, to one more rung in that ladder of spiritual maturity and growth in our lives. You know, I was talking with Pastor on my phone last week, and you know what he was sharing with me? Stories of what's going on right here, right here in Stirling Heights, First Baptist, of people who are learning this and doing it. And I sat in my office in Greenville going, praise the Lord, how is this happening? How can this happen? in such a destitute part of our country. That's exactly what God wants them to shine and show himself faithful in a time like this. What do we need to do? Folks, all I'm asking this morning, no pressure, please, please no. What I'm asking is, please, my challenge this morning is just to get your heart, turn your circumstances over to the Lord. Just turn them over to the Lord. God has put you there so that you can prove and exercise your faith. The woman is there because she was at the end of her rope, ready to have one more meal and die. I don't think any of us are yet to that point. I don't minimize our plight. All of us have felt that. All I'm saying is that God has given us an opportunity. Let's turn it over to Him. And then ask Him, Lord, what would you have me to do? Is there anything I should do? Should I give two mites? Just give two mites. I mean, once you give your heart to Him, it's totally given already. He may say, give whatever. All I'm saying is, become a cheerful giver, knowing that exactly what you're giving is indeed what God has played on your heart to give. And just by faith give it, and by faith believe that He's going to use it to exalt His name, I could tell stories of what I've heard, of what is going on with God's people during this time. We have about 2,000 churches that help support GFA missionaries. 2,000. I checked last week. Of the 2,000 fundamental churches, there's four that have had to discontinue their support of missionaries. OK, I'm not going to look down on those four. Sure, I mean, all right. There's other circumstances that come up. But my point is this, out of 2,000 during this economic downturn, I do you two wit, my friends. God is doing the same thing today that he's done in the past. Open your eyes and look. And say, God, let me be a part of this. I want to be a part of it. I don't know how. I don't know what. that your work will go forward. This is the first Sunday of your mission's emphasis. Let's ask God to help us hit the ball out of the ballpark and send the gospel around the world that others would say, I do you to wit. The church, the First Baptist Church of Starr Heights, it's miraculous. You know who gets the glory? God. Let's pray. Father, pray now that you will take the time this morning, the words spoken, to drive home to our heart, indeed, what we need to know and understand about this next step of spiritual growth. May we look for that in our lives. Help us, Father, to turn our circumstances over to Thee. Help us, Father, know that there's This type of spiritual activity of giving is not to be done by pressure, but totally by a willing heart. Give us that willing heart to give exactly what you lead us to do, and we'll do it by faith. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.